


Alliances

by AndreaLyn



Category: House M.D.
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-06
Updated: 2014-09-06
Packaged: 2018-02-16 08:57:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2263638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AndreaLyn/pseuds/AndreaLyn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kutner wants to learn a thing or two from Chase.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Alliances

There was really only one bar worth going to on the campus grounds, where the co-eds didn’t crowd out of deference to the teaching hospital and the drinks weren’t so watered down that they might as well have been Shirley Temples. It was the bar that Chase frequented after a long shift and it was the bar that Kutner was just discovering. Since Christmas, they had progressed to the point of being casual acquaintances, the kind that acknowledged each other in the hall, said ‘hi’ in the mornings, and felt the obligation to talk to if sighted across a crowded bar.  
  
“Hey,” Kutner greeted casually, nodding to the bartender to get a couple more drinks. “So, you’re dating Dr. Cameron, right?” Hospital rumour spread fairly quickly, but it was never accurate. It had more of a ‘say anything and something will be right’ effect.   
  
“Sort of.”  
  
“Sort of?”  
  
Chase shifted uncomfortably as he claimed a glass of wine from over the bar, mumbling his thanks to the bartender. “We’re dating, but we also see other people.” He and Kutner made a synchronized dismount of the bar stools on the way through a dense crowd in an effort to find the seclusion of a booth, having silently agreed to do so without a single word of conversation.   
  
“Nice,” Kutner said appreciatively, grinning past the neck of his bottle of beer. “Your idea?”  
  
“Hers,” Chase said, uncomfortably. They settled in the leather cushions while the world went on around them and Kutner had the decency to look put-out on Chase’s behalf. “I’m pretty sure she’s still in love with House.”  
  
At the very mention of the name, they both went quiet and it almost seemed like the conversation was going to end there and they would go their separate ways in the ensuing awkwardness.  
  
“I heard something around the hospital that you were sort of in love with House too,” Kutner provided helpfully. It might have almost sounded as if he wanted  _tips_ on how to navigate those troublesome waters.   
  
Chase, Kutner realized in the light of the bar, had a really nice smile when he actually relaxed enough to let it show. Whatever Kutner had said or done just then, it’d gotten a really bright grin out of the other Doctor, who had put his glass down to focus on Kutner.   
  
“What?” Kutner had to ask, taken in by the jocular mood.   
  
“I’m more than sure that House started that rumour himself,” Chase said in a dry, amused tone. “And that it’s been circulating the hospital for four years now.”  
  
It wasn’t a secret to any of the new fellows that Dr. Robert Chase had a sick kind of loyalty to House, the kind where he was able to survive four years with the man before being let go, only to suddenly get a huge promotion and raise at the same hospital. Kutner admired that and wanted to ask questions, a  _lot_  of questions about just how he could keep his job like that. With his luck, though, House would find out he was grilling Chase and fire him for it, just to do it.   
  
“So you’re not into House?”  
  
“I never said that,” Chase countered lightly.   
  
“Are you just doing this to mess with my head? Cuz if I wanted that, I’d still be at work,” Kutner pointed out, tugging the tag out of his shirt to fidget with something while they talked. Chase idly popped peanuts into his mouth when his tongue wasn’t dabbing out to catch stray flecks of salt. In the back of Kutner’s mind, he wondered if this was turning into a date. Hell, in the back of his mind, he was curious if Chase would tell him more if they went back to his place. Maybe he should drop the whole pretense and admit that he kind of liked Chase, on an intellectual level.  
  
And plus, people sort of noticed Chase’s other attributes around the hospital. Even if they didn’t say it much. It was hard to miss perfect hair and an Australian accent when you were working out of a hospital in  _Jersey_.   
  
“He’s House,” Chase was rationalizing while Kutner was paying attention to his own thoughts. “I’m pretty sure it’s physically impossible to not feel some kind of pull from him.”  
  
“What, you think Dr. Foreman does too?” Kutner grinned at the mental image of Foreman going all eyelash-batting around House. And then his stomach flipped uncomfortably at the very same image. “Oh,  _eugh_ ,” he grimaced. “Yeah, forget I said that part.” That made Chase grin at Kutner and that earned a smile from Kutner himself. “Hey, you want to maybe get out of here? It’s noisy.”  
  
It wasn’t.  
  
“We could go back to my place and talk,” Kutner suggested, cool as a dozen cucumbers.   
  
“About House?”  
  
“Or something.”  
  
Kutner was already getting out money to pay for both their drinks and the cab home, before Chase had even gotten a chance to answer him. Kutner knew he was probably overstepping his bounds and was probably going to hear about this on Monday from House – because House knew about  _everything_ , because he was like God, in a way. Still, that was Monday.  
  
“We don’t have to talk about work,” Kutner finally offered, even though it felt like a defeat to say that.  
  
Chase gave Kutner a long onceover, eyes lingering on his face and then dropping to his t-shirt (and lack of tie) for a longer moment before shuffling out of the booth and sliding into his leather coat, nodding to the door. “Come on,” he invited. “I’ll even tell you House’s pet peeves on the way back.”  
  
Kutner’s grin was bright enough to stun deer in their tracks as he followed. 


End file.
